 Good morning and welcome back to Think Tech Hawaii and my fifth episode of Movement Matters. Movement Matters covers topics dealing with the health and wellness of your body. If this is your first time joining us, I'm Christine Linders. I'm a licensed physical therapist and been practicing physical therapy for over 23 years in California, New York, Connecticut, and now in Hawaii in a variety of settings. I'm a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist. I'm certified in applied functional science and I have my manual therapy certification. My show Movement Matters is designed to bring you the most cutting edge and effective treatment strategies so you can help your body perform better, decrease pain, and get back to doing the things that you love. Today's topic is decreased stress, improve your sleep, and your health. I'm delighted to have a very special guest calling in today from San Diego, Sharon Chusterman. Sharon has been practicing speech and language pathology for over 27 years. In today's episode, Sharon and I will be discussing the harmful effects stress and lack of sleep have on our minds and our bodies. And by the end, you'll learn several strategies proven to decrease stress and pain, improve your quality of sleep, your memory, and your health. Welcome Sharon and thank you for joining us on Movement Matters. Chris, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you today. And I'm so glad to be talking to you today about essential oils. There we go. I'm excited too. So I have known Sharon since I became a physical therapist. We worked at the same place together and I went out there in February to clean out my condo before moving to Hawaii. And I had just had shoulder surgery in November and I had to paint and clean and get everything ready for renters to be moving in. And I was staying with Sharon. I got to Sharon's house. I was exhausted from the red eye. I hadn't slept leading up to the trip. I wasn't sleeping well and my arm was killing me. Both of my arms were killing me from painting and Sharon opened up this little box and kit with all these little bottles of essential oils and she rubbed some cream on my arm and set a diffuser with essential oils and I slept better than I'd slept in a while and my arm felt a lot better the next day. So I wanted to ask Sharon how that helped me, how that supported me. So Sharon, what did you give me? What was that? How does that work? So Chris, I'm so excited to share with you my journey with essential oils. You know, you were telling me about some of the things that were going on in your life and I was just happy to be able to share with you. So I just wanted to tell you how I first, if it's okay, I want to tell you how I got started with it. Yeah. How did you get started? Because you said you'd been involved for a couple of years and I didn't even know. Yeah. Well, I got started. I was about maybe two and a half, three years ago. I started seeing all these ads and seeing essential oils on shelves in the grocery store and seeing them online. Chris, you and I have been working in the medical field all of these years and we've just seen so much around us, right? Yes, we have. And so I decided, well, I have these things that I'd like to support in my body and my family and my friends. And let me see what this is all about. And I had seen a friend of mine who's also a speech language pathologist. She had been sharing on social media her experiences. Yeah. And I was just seeing her use them in so many different ways. And I thought, huh, this is really interesting. I'm going to reach out to her. So I did and it was great. I said, you know, I've got some things in my life. And she said, hey, let me let me tell you about it. So, you know, we got talking and I found out that she uses essential oils from a company called Young Living. And, you know, again, in the medical field, Chris, we're all about like researching stuff and learning as much as we can, especially we're going to put on our bodies. So in my research, I found that this company has been around 26 years, which is huge. Yes, it is. Yeah. And I said, you know, if I'm going to put this, these oils, if I'm going to use them on my body or smell them, you know, in the diffuser, I better know, you know, are they good quality? So I just want to let your listeners know that it is important to check on the quality. And the great thing about Young Living is that their process is so fantastic from the time that they plant the seeds, they have their own farms. Wow. They're reinvested in the whole process and how and you can even go. I'm so excited one day to go on to one of their farms and actually see the process. It's so cool. Well, please let me know when you do because I want to take that trip with you. It would be a great, fun trip. And then the process of how they bottle it and then they have these outside companies that come in and test their purity and their quality. And if they don't like what they see, Young Living will throw it out. And this is a third-party independent testing. So after that research, yeah, after that research, I said, I think I'm going to try this one out. You know, you are getting what you want and especially for what you're trying to use it for. I think that's fantastic. And I'm so grateful that there's people that out there like you who do the research and the extensive research because you've done all the work for all of us. I know there's a lot of different oils out there and essential oils I've seen since I've been in Hawaii. A lot of people are into healthy living here and they're using them. And I had those questions until I tried your products. How do you pick one and you've just answered that for me? So I guess I want to know now too, what did you put in those concoctions that you used on me? There was this couple things and for someone like me too who's new to it, how do you, is there certain oils that maybe support different things like some for supporting sleep, some for calming your mind, some for decreasing anxiety or getting rid of pain? That's what I want to know. Yes, absolutely. That's the great thing that I've been learning and I still have so much to learn. As I, of course, as I have these things in my life, that's how I learn. So I saw, I listened to you and a lot of people have that trouble sleeping on occasion and I just started doing research. I found out that there are oils like cedarwood and lavender and actually I meant to tell you so my husband has been having a lot of trouble sleeping and he was like, what is this oil thing you're getting into and does it really help? Right, right. So he'd been going for a long time trying different things and I just took lavender and a lot of people are familiar with lavender, heard about it and I just gave him lavender and he puts it on the bottom of his feet. There's different places on your body I found out that are great places to put the oils on. I think when you gave me some of those bottles to take home here to Hawaii I was rubbing some in my hand before sleep, putting some on my neck and just sniffing it a little bit under my nose because I didn't have one of those diffusers. So I didn't know that you could put it on your feet. I just was, I think doing what maybe you showed me, I'm not sure. So that's good to know. Where else can you put it? Yeah, so there's what I've learned is there's three different ways that we can benefit from how the oils work and how they help and support us and one way is the diffuser and if you don't have one obviously that's okay like you don't have one so you can put it topically on your skin and when you start getting into it you start learning like what's the safe way to use it because you know we have to all keep in mind that some people might have sensitive skin and so I've you know been experimenting with that too and you start really slow. I mean the one thing is people need to know you got to really start slow and so on your skin and then ingesting it, ingesting is another way but you know I would say I use on my skin and diffusing probably the majority of the time and I do want to say Chris that people should check in with their doctor and you know just make sure that like I said you start slow but it's also good. Yep it's always good to check in with your doctor that's right. Check in with your doctor that's right so anyway yeah so when my husband he just loves his lavender and if I if he runs out boy I know it but yeah just you know through experimentation and what works for your body may not work for somebody else and and it's just so much fun you know you get to smell these wonderful oils and try them out and you know I love it. I think that's great and I love what you've given me and since we're on the topic of sleep and I know that Jay is happily sleeping like a baby thanks to his lavender right. Well I remember about three years ago I went to a seminar on stress and sleep and it's a little strategy that I've been using ever since where the presenter Pauline Lucas she's a physical therapist was talking about mindfulness meditation and stress and how stress impacts your sleep but stress also impacts the brain organs the hippocampus which is your memory slash learning center and your amygdala which is your fear or fight flight center and she showed some good information and slides of research that have been done that showed when people were chronically stressed for a long period of time that that brain organ the amygdala actually increased in size on their brain scans and the hippocampus or learning center or memory center has decreased in size and do you remember me telling you about that because I started doing a mindfulness app which greatly helped me to decrease my stress and then get some good sleep a couple years ago and I think I told you about that. You did Chris and it's so funny because right after you told me that a lot of the work that I do you know are people in rehab centers and they've been through a lot of trauma and so as I'm helping them I'm you know figuring out that these people are really under a lot of stress and they're not able to really benefit the maximum of their therapy and I've started incorporating some things I could help them to help with their stress level and when you told me that what I love about it is because I help people basically with their cognitive recovery their brain function recovery and you were talking with sharing with me the the research that showed yeah actual changes then I said I'm going to start using this so I right away downloaded a mindfulness app I share it with my patients I go through it with them and they'll tell me I'll come back the next day they'll say they'll say wow I slept so good last night. I'm glad that it works for a lot of people I know I've shared it with my patients as well so I want to skip back to essential oils just for a second what was that salve or cream that you put on my arm that night in February because I remember asking you about it because it really felt good putting on and I couldn't believe how I felt afterward I'm surprised yeah so young living has has put together some various things that where you don't you know you take the the guesswork out of it and they've already put things together formulated different things that you can just get and they actually have something a cream called koolazool pain cream and that's and I've had that it's amazing I've had that um that container of it for like two years over two years I need to write that down yeah and I just put a little bit on you and you you know you you thought it was great so um yeah that one in particular is it's really great it's a cream with the oils in it I like that I like that so so Sharon we're gonna go to a brief break everyone this is movement matters on think tech Hawaii we're speaking with Sharon Seusserman a speech and language pathologist about sleep stress and how to decrease those and improve your health we'll be right back stay tuned hi I'm Rusty Komori host of beyond the lines I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years and we're fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championship this show is based on my book which is also titled beyond the lines and it's about leadership creating a superior culture of excellence achieving and sustaining success and finding greatness if you're a student parent sports or business person and want to improve your life and the lives of people around you tune in and join me on Mondays at 11 a.m. as we go beyond the lines on think tech Hawaii aloha hi guys I'm your host Lillian Cumick from Lillian's vegan world and I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. and this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism so we go through recipes some upcoming events information about health regarding your health and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle eat healthier and have fun at the same time so do join me I look forward to seeing you and aloha hi we're back this is movement matters I'm christian lenders and we're talking to very special guest Sharon Schusterman who's talking about essential oils and how they can support your body to improve your sleep decrease stress and so Sharon I was saying how I took some of these essential oils and use them on my body and really felt like I had noticed the difference and so we were talking about young living and this cool Azul cream that I also rubbed on my arm how can I find or how can anyone find where to get this beautiful beautiful products good question the best way Chris I've you know I've learned that people really need a lot of support because it's so overwhelming yes and there's so much to learn and when I first signed on I really relied on my friend Amanda you know who did guide me with young living so I think getting in touch with you would be a great way to start and then you you can talk we can talk one on one with people I think that's the best way because like I said you know it's so overwhelming there's so much information there's so much information and I also wanted you to touch on because I'm just remembering that for people like myself and yourself who are busy and when we first get started we might not know what to put on our bodies I think you mentioned that young living has some pre concocted blends of things that are used to support different things is that correct oh they do absolutely I've I've discovered some of these and I use them to support me like right before I came on with you you know of course I knew I was gonna be nervous and and worried and so I put on they have a blend called peace and calming isn't that a great name that sounds wonderful yeah so it has five different wonderful great smelling oils in there and I already knew that young living did all the work and they put those together and that gives me peace and calm so it's great you know they have those kinds that that take that guess work out but then all the other stuff it's so overwhelming the one-on-one is just the best okay well that's that's great so Sharon thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to come on to Think Tech Hawaii and tell us about essential oils I hope to have you on the show again soon yes thank you so much chris and I just want to say what a wonderful physical therapist you are too in case your listeners don't already know that you're wonderful you're helping me mahalo mahalo all right have a great day thank you all right you too bye bye bye okay so that was great to talk to Sharon about essential oils and how they can really help to support your body so in the next 10 minutes I want to talk a little bit more about the stress and how that impacts your sleep so if we go to slide two this is a great image of what I feel like oftentimes at the end of the day where I'm stressed out and so if anybody else feels like that man woman student you name it that's a tough place to be so what can you do to get to slide number three and how you feel when you look at this next picture of a beautiful sunrise so I would like you all to think about what you felt like and what you feel like when you look back at slide number two the very stressed out the very frazzled picture of the woman when I look at that picture I feel a little bit tense maybe my heart rate speeds up a little bit and I don't like that feeling and that's a feeling that we feel when we're in a hurry or we're getting ready for the next day at work and we know we have a long day or we've had a tough day taking care of our kids and the next day you've got to wake up and do it again because someone has a cold and you have a cold where you're preparing for that important job interview or you're a student you have an exam and you feel like this person the night before what do you do to calm yourself down so that you can get a good night's sleep to prepare yourself for the next day's activity so I'll get to that in a minute now let's look at slide number three again the image of the sunrise how do you feel when you look at that image I feel like taking a deep breath I can imagine the sound of the waves lapping up onto the beach and not everybody likes the beach but it's a pretty pleasant photo for most of us to look at so the next photo slide four is another one now not everybody serfs but that kind of evokes a sense of calm in me and for each person there could be an image or a sound or something that can help you wind down before you get ready for sleep even though you have a big test the next day or you know you've got an impossible day that you have to handle and you need to be at your best for it so the national sleep foundation recommends that adults get between seven to nine hours of sleep every night in order to perform at their best the next day and that's a lot and I remember I used to sleep five hours and say oh I'll sleep you know I'll sleep when I'm dead but you know that's that's a tough thing to say I was young people get harassed a little bit if they say oh I need nine hours of sleep and we think oh maybe they're a slacker I've got to get it all done but that's not true we need sleep sleep is when we recover sleep is when we form the memories and make the learning into memories that we've had the day excuse me that we've had the day before and for high school age kids the national sleep foundation recommends eight to ten hours of sleep so let's look at slide number five which talks about excuse me which talks about some of the effects that stress and chronic stress has on our body so increased anxiety depression digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome insomnia where you just can't get to sleep memory impairment or decreased focus the next day or the day after that a chronic stress can cause weight gain with the release of that hormone cortisol too much in our system it can cause increased pain in our bodies if we're not getting enough sleep or an increased awareness of pain in our body where the pain may seem more severe to us than it actually is it can cause an increased risk for type two diabetes and it can cause sexual dysfunction so I think after seeing that a lot of it holds true for us who want to get better sleep because maybe we experience some of those side effects from not having enough sleep and so Sharon talked a little bit about essential oils and how they can support your body with the lavender and all these different things I'm not sure what was in mind I'll have to do a second show on that to get yourself calm you can also do some deep breathing it's recommended to get off of your devices where there's that blue light 35 to 45 minutes before you're going to sleep so that you're getting that release of the natural hormone melatonin that kicks in depending on what time zone I was reading some studies around nine o'clock at night and takes about 90 minutes to get into full four so you want to be getting ready for sleep being calm not checking emails not watching a stimulating show just kind of getting into that process of sleep so I had the benefit of attending a lecture by Pauline Lucas who's a physical therapist three years ago and that's where Sharon and I were discussing the role of the hippocampus and the amygdala in our brain and what happened with chronic stress and Sharon was taken aback and so was I by the brain scans that showed that after 30 minutes 30 to 45 minutes of mindfulness meditation daily people's brain scans improved where that fear center the amygdala actually had become smaller in size and the hippocampus the learning center the one we want to be in good fitness and good working order actually increased in size for the mindfulness with the mindfulness every day so I took it on myself because there was a slide in her talk that said even for beginners or don't do it that long you could have a benefit so I was going through a very tense and stressful time in my life a few years ago so I started doing three to five minutes of mindfulness every single night and so I know they don't recommend that you do it while you're laying down because they're afraid you're going to fall asleep and you really need to clear your mind but there's three to five minutes so I was able to lie down all ready for sleep go through my mindfulness meditation and I got to tell you within it must have been within a week or two I felt more calm at work I felt less reactionary I was happier I felt better so it's something that's really important to do and and I think that everyone in today's world where we have devices emails text messages multitasking our brain all day long we have a trouble focusing on one thing because our focus is being pulled in so many directions that it's important to do a strategy or something to get yourself a good night's sleep so that you can be prepared to have the best attention and the focus that you can the next day so in slide number six here some of the effects from doing mindfulness meditation on a regular basis this was researched again from the national institute of health it reduced high blood pressure it reduced the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome people had reduced flare-ups with ulcerative colitis reduced anxiety reduced depression and reduced insomnia they had improved immune function in people that had hiv and cancer it helped to support people that had stopped smoking it improved the quality of life in people that had breast cancer it reduced inflammation which is something that I focus on with bodies and patients in my clinic because I'm trying to help them with their pain reduced adh symptoms and reduced menopause symptoms so just reading that I'm sold on mindfulness meditation and I would like to show you slide number seven is a little app that I found three years ago called mindfulness and it was a dollar 99 at the time and it was the first or 99 cents it was the first app that I purchased and then it went free and now I'm not sure where it stands right now I need to check I think it's a free trial and maybe then you have to buy it but what I loved about the mindfulness app it has that little icon with the person the white person in the meditation pose is it's very quick there's guided meditations or silent meditation so if you're a beginner and I was a beginner I felt it very helpful to listen to somebody because my inner voice was saying oh my gosh I have so much to do how am I gonna get that done oh my gosh I forgot to email that person back I forgot to call that person back so I'm getting stressed just talking about it but the mindfulness app was a guided meditation that took my stress level from high to low and it really helped me when I was a beginner to listen to someone's voice and pay attention and pay attention to what she was saying so if you get this app there's many different ones this is the one that I've used and recommended if we go to slide eight it's easy you open up the app you click get started and then or or and that'll give you a tutorial or what I do is I go to the time sessions I clicked on time sessions and then in image number nine I click on either three minutes five minutes which is talking continuously or you can go to 10 minutes or 15 minutes where there's breaks in time so that's what I like to do but if you see on the bottom you can click the little button off of guided and you could pick nice forest music or rain sounds so to wrap it up I just wanted to provide for you the strategies to help you decrease your stress get a better night's sleep and be in less pain thank you so much for joining movement matters and thank you thank tec Hawaii and all of our sponsors and donors for having us on today Mahalo